CHAPTER XXIX ALASKA AND THE NORTH CO\ST A LASKA is vast and \aned It is equal in area to four -TX Swedens fi\e New Zealands or six Lnited Kingdoms Withm an area nearly the size of the state of Queensland it embraces a great variety of surface and vegetation—loft\ Alps deep fiords enormous forests large expanses of upland grazing rich agricultural valleys coastal waters teeming with fish vigorous nvers pouring down water power—all as yet comparatively undeveloped Its fur bearing animals have attracted the trapper for 200 years or more \vhife deposits of gold antimony lead chrome manganese nickel and many other minerals await the miner s enterprise The hardships suffered by the unseasoned diggers in the gold rush to the Yukon in the nineties have &me rmxrh to defame a cbmate as good as Norway s near the coast, and ao worse than Russia s m the interior Before die war the people of Alaska numbered about 70000 and the tacraMfe was slow owmg to the retarding effect of poor communjca tions upon development Five years of war have done more than fifty years of desultory development to reveal the possi* bihties of the territory Alaska became a great spnngboard for the attack upon Japan, Unlimited men money and machines have changed Alaska from an empty snowbound region to a pioneer country with modern roads aerodromes telegraph aiad radio services national highway 1600 miles long and costing has been constructed and tins may be the first of a series of transport projects whrfi wiB iink ILS .A and the UJ5 SJL Now with setter sefetfemeiit a great post war problem, Alaska is